


Two Birds on a Wire

by jayy (spaloozey)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (but also do), Angst, Blood, Depression, Drowning, F/M, Friends to Lovers, I'm Sorry, M/M, Scars, Telepathy, Violence, all i know is that this is a shipwreck, and hurt/comfort maybe, because it makes your heart pang...haha..haha.ha, but also fluff, but mostly just hurt ahaha..., dreamscapes and alternate-realities, flirtyrobot, i forgot about that shipname wow, i'm so sorry pidge, langst? more like pangst, pidgance, pidge is a jelly birb, pidge is literally always sleep-deprived, plance, please don't read this, ptsd probably, sad ass fucking death scenes, time-travel, two very dense children
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-10
Updated: 2017-10-22
Packaged: 2018-10-03 00:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10231454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaloozey/pseuds/jayy
Summary: [Note: Story is on hold for now until I can gather more motivation/time. Sorry about that. Hopefully I'll be able to start working on it again soon.]Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.The story of how Lance and Pidge learned to love by adopting an alien son (not really) and getting into way too many close brushes with death.Set in season two, before Shiro vanishes and after we learned about Galra!Keith (somehow..)





	1. Wonderful

**Author's Note:**

> this story is actually completely based on a dream i had that actually got me into shipping plance more hardcore than ever before and is the reason i changed my blog up into voltron trash so... honestly, i hope this converts some people :') and if it doesn't then there's also some sheith in here kinda and implied hunk/shay.
> 
> do note though that this is my first commitment to a real multi-chapter fic so it might be pretty rough around the edges, cause honestly i have no fucking idea how to write for this long.. 
> 
> also i linked a few songs in some of the chapters along with lyrics i thought were relevant so check those out if you want. 
> 
> i love the trans headcanons for pidge but she's gonna be cis female in this fic because i'm trash and this is a pretty, ah, self-serving fic. sorry! i might do transboy/transgirl pidge variations later or if i start another fic. all the paladins are different ages in this fic too. pidge is 16, lance is 17 (mostly to explain their maturity level), keith is 18, and hunk is 19. shiro is still 6 (25).
> 
> and, yeah, anyway, i really hope you guys enjoy this! check out my tumblr pidgeonlance.tumblr.com/ too cause you can totally shoot me with questions/writing/prompts on there if you want! (and fanart) (if fanart happens i might cry) (i've never gotten it before).
> 
> @me if you cry because i definitely cried while writing. please, share your pain.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This first chapter is mostly just fluff and stuff I wanted to write, but don't worry, the story will pick up really soon c: Song is Life is Wonderful by Jason Mraz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esFAe2BDwIc)

_It takes a crane to build a crane_

_It takes two floors to make a story_

_It takes an egg to make a hen_

_It takes a hen to make an egg_

_There is no end to what I'm saying_

 

_It takes a thought to make a word_

_And it takes some words to make an action_

_It takes some work to make it work_

_It takes some good to make it hurt_

_It takes some bad for satisfaction_

 

_La la la la la la la life is wonderful_

_Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle_

_Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful_

_Ah la la la la_

 

_It takes a night to make it dawn_

_And it takes a day to make you yawn, brother_

_It takes some old to make you young_

_It takes some cold to know the sun_

_It takes the one to have the other_

 

_It takes no time to fall in love_

_But it takes you years to know what love is_

_It takes some fears to make you trust_

_It takes those tears to make it rust_

_It takes some dust to have it polished_

 

_Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful_

_Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle_

_Ah la la la la la la life is so full of_

_Ah la la la la la la life is so rough_

_Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful_

_Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle_

_Ah la la la la la la life is our love_

_Ah la la la la la_

 

_It takes some silence to make sound_

_It takes some loss before you found me_

_It takes a road to go nowhere_

_It takes a toll to make you care_

_It takes a hole to make a mountain_

 

_Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful_

_Ah la la la la la la life goes full circle_

_Ah la la la la la la life is wonderful_

_Ah la la la la la la life is meaningful_

 

_It is so meaningful_

_It is so wonderful_

  
\----

Deep in the dark recesses of Coran's lab, a pair of unruly figures were hunched over a video feed, features sharp and severe in the low light.

"Did you get the tape in place Lance?" the smaller figure asked, adjusting her glasses on her face.

 

Her companion grinned, "Course I did. You got the video feeds up?"

Pidge nodded. "Up and ready to go whenever!" she reported, scooting the screen a little to the left so he could see. There, on the monitor, were three perfect camera angles of their other three sleeping team mates, innocently unaware of what was about to happen. Lance's grinned turned about a hundred times more maniacal.

"Let's get this party started." he said.

Pidge hummed, her smile reflecting his mischief. "Right on." She turned up the volume on her laptop and pulled out a microphone, placing it in front of her on the desk. Taking a deep breath, Pidge leaned into the mic and flicked the switch.

  
"EMERGENCY ALERT! EMERGENCY ALERT! GALRA SHIPS SPOTTED ON OUR LEFT FLANK. I REPEAT, GALRA SHIPS SPOTTED ON THE LEFT FLANK. EVERYBODY GET UP AND GET TO YOUR STATIONS!" she shouted, pleased to hear her voice booming back to her through the castle's alarm system, "THIS IS A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH", she added, grinning maniacally as the three figures on the video screen scrambled awake, shedding blankets, pillows and stuffed animals alike. Each of the paladins struggled to get into their armor at the sudden summoning, Keith even falling over his own trousers; earning a loud laugh from Lance.

"This is gold!" he beamed, leaning over Pidge's shoulder to get a closer look. Pidge tried not to cringe at the close proximity, chortling as Hunk ran straight into a wall.

Lance laughed, amused at the sight. "Man just wait until he opens the door!" he hyped, bouncing up and down behind her seat.

The duo watched as the paladins all began doing just that, each hitting the button on the side of their cabin doors simultaneously. Pidge could barely contain her excitement as her and Lance got a prime time view of all three of their fellow paladins simultaneously walking right into a wall of plastic wrap. All three of them screamed in surprise at their sudden inability to move.

_A college classic_ Pidge thought, smirking.

Lance howled. Keith's face got stuck. There was no way he was gonna let him live that down.

Lance was on the floor, laughing so hard it sounded painful. Pidge herself had gradually slid down her chair, wiping tears from her eyes and smiling giddily. What an adventure this was. Lance punched her shoulder, "Please tell me you got all that recorded!" he boomed, eyes trained on her screen.

Pidge grinned slyly. "Of course I did man! I had three separate recorders on for that display. There's no way they all missed it." she informed him, dusting off her pants as she got to her feet and pulled up the footage. Sure enough, three different videos had finished recording and with their shortcut icons sitting proudly on her desktop. All in all a job well done.

Lance gave her a thumbs up. "Awesome work, Pidge!" he complimented, slapping her on the back a little bit too hard, making her wince "Now we've GOT to shove this in their dumbfounded faces!" he insisted, bouncing on the balls of his feet excitedly.

Pidge shook her head at his antics, but was smiling anyway. "Go ahead man. I gotta make sure these all saved properly." she lied, adjusting her glasses on her face. They'd gone askew from all the laughing she'd been doing.

Lance shrugged, not catching her lie. "Your loss, Pidge." he told her. He waved a hand at her over his shoulder before running off down the hallway.

_He's so eager to humiliate Keith.._ Pidge mused, stifling a smirk. She turned back to her computer.

_Now.. to business._

Her fingers flew over the keys. The videos were all already saved and stored on her hard drive as well as on a few online cloud storage systems, just in case. What she really needed to do was check on a file that had been gradually loading in the background before Lance had burst in and insisted they pull this prank. Pidge couldn't turn him down, not when they had the perfect chance to use that plastic-wrap Hunk found for something truly devious. That stuff was a real rarity in space.

Pidge's thoughts were halted when a small ding sounded through her headphones, letting her know that the download was done. She pulled up the file, vision narrowing. She swallowed, her hands suddenly getting clammy as her heart seemed to decide it wanted to leave her chest. It hammered painfully against her ribcage, and she closed her eyes, steadying her breathing before double clicking on the link.

There on the screen appeared a dark, dank cell with water dripping from the ceiling and a dirty white cot shoved into the corner. The cell was grey and dirty and empty and looked inhospitable. But there _was_ someone living there; a figure huddled on the floor, close to the bed, shivering violently. Their face was flushed red and their breathing seemed labored; hair sweaty and tangled, clumped together with dirt and..what looked like blood. Underneath the grimy rags the figure wore it seemed like his limbs were made of sticks; bony wrists protruding from under the greyish cloth, pale, with blood under the nails, and bruises on the palms.

The figure erupted into a horrific coughing fight, throwing one hand in front of their face and the other down on the ground to steady themself. Pidge drew in a breath, hyperfocusing on the figure's face as it was revealed to the camera.

"Matt.." she choked out, gently reaching out to touch the screen. Her fingers left a trail of static over his pixelated clothes. Her brother jolted so suddenly that Pidge almost thought she caused the reaction, but what she saw next made her realize that was not the case

Matt doubled over and crawled onto his knees, grappling for what looked like a silver pail. Weakly, he scooted it closer to where he lay, shakily positioning himself over the bucket. Pidge leaned in curiously and then covered her mouth as her brother made the most wretched sound she had ever heard. A disturbing, glowing green substance was regurgitated into the bucket, along with what looked like blood. Pidge shook at the sight, tears overflowing, wetting the fingers she had clamped over her quivering lips.

_What have they done to him?_ she despaired, biting one of her fingers as the disgusting scene unfolded, prompting bile to rise from the back of her throat.

With a flick of her wrist, Pidge closed the window, exhaling and leaning her forehead down on her desk. She couldn't watch her brother suffer like that, alone in that alien cell. Not when there was nothing she could learn from it.. He'd already been freed from the Galrans by that mysterious group weeks ago. There was nothing worth watching in that file..

_Another false lead.._ Pidge banged her head against the desk, once, hard enough to leave a groove, before straightening, shutting down her laptop with a sigh.

_I'll find you Matt.. I promise._

 

\----

 

The next few hours were harsh. After the giant prank Lance and Pidge had pulled none of the other paladins got any sleep, meaning they were all extremely grumpy towards both the dynamic duo that morning. Pidge received quite a few hard glares from Allura and Keith when she went into to the Kitchen to retrieve some breakfast that morning, and a few more from Shiro and Hunk as she joined them on the training deck for practice. Lance, after falling asleep mid-morning, joined them on the training deck and got majorly dished out by Shiro, effectively ruining his day.

Luckily, though, nothing major really happened after lunch, so they all had a chance to retire for a nap afterwards before their friendships completely spiraled. Which was good news, since Pidge and Lance had planned a movie night that evening, hoping it would rekindle everyone's spirits. Hunk, and Lance and her had scheduled it weeks ago, but since the incident they figured they could move it up, seeing as there were no Galra sightings or imminent dangers in the immediate area. Lance had gone absolutely nuts when he saw just how many (pirated) earth movies Pidge had stored on her computer, and insisted she share her collection that night.

So, as her friends set up, Pidge figured out how to wire her computer into the Altean system, managing to get a display hologram up in the lounge. Lance had done rounds through the dorms, collecting pillows, blankets, stuffed animals, and anything else fluffy or otherwise comfortable he could get his hands on. The resulting pillow fort was incredibly impressive; stacked three pillows high, with blankets draping over the back of each couch, secured with some of Pidge's books. Pidge had set up a main screen in front of the couches. Hunk, of course, had been left in charge of food, and came back with trays full of alien goodies.

  
"Wait, Hunk, is that-"

"Yep!! It's popcorn!" Hunk interrupted Lance excitedly, passing him the bowl. "Keith found some poor alien selling it for like NOTHING at the outlet the other day so I just had to save some for tonight. We have loads more back in the Kitchen too so we can restock all night."

"Holy crow, Hunk, that's amazing!!" Lance cried, hugging his big friend around the waist dramatically Pidge wandered over curiously, excited by the prospect of human food. Then she remembered her request.

"Ah, Hunk, did they have what I asked for?" she asked quietly, not really wanting to get her hopes yet, in case they didn't.

"YEP." Hunk smirked, his smile stretching all the way up to his ears. "Wait here." he said, placing the last bowl of popcorn down before dashing back into the Kitchen. Pidge bounced on her toes excitedly.

"What'd Hunk get you?" Lance asked, leaning closer to the bubbling girl curiously.

"You'll see." she promised, grin practically glued on her face.

Sure enough, Hunk was back in no time with three full jars of the awaited substance. Creamy, chunky, and rich. Pidge squealed.

"PEANUT BUTTER!" she cheered, clapping her hands and lunging for the nearest one she could reach, snapping it out of Hunk's hands a bit rudely. She opened the jar with a quick twist of her wrist and breathed in the smell wistfully. "Oh my god.. it's heavenly." she crooned, a dreamy look overtaking her face as she hummed, cradling the jar.

Lance couldn't help it, he snorted at the sounds she made, taking a jar from Hunk as well. "Jeez, it's just peanut butter, Pidge." he teased her, grabbing two spoons from the big man and tossing one to Pidge. "Not sex."

Pidge flushed a deep vermillion, turning away from the unshameful bastard and sitting cross-legged on the floor, next to the opening of the fort "Dolt.." she muttered, and opened the jar. She took a big glob of peanut butter in her spoon and stuck it in her mouth. Her cheeks went warm as the flavors enveloped her pallette. She took some more on her tongue, moaning a bit in delight at the flavors and letting them melt in her mouth, before she licked the rest of the spoon slowly, groaning a little bit at the pleasure that washed over her.

_It's been years since I've had real peanut butter.._

Little did she notice the hard stare she was receiving from Lance, face aflame.

Hunk snickered, leaning in a little closer to his friend. "Like the food porn now?" he teased, delighted to see him turn a few shades redder at his comment. Hunk chuckled quietly and snuck away to where Keith sat, patting the blanket next to him. Lance just stood there dumbfounded.

By the time he finally managed to look away, Shiro and Keith had arrived with their two Alteans friends in tow, guiding them down to the fort. He had to explain to them that "movie nights" were one of Earth's time-honored traditions and usually took place under pillow forts like this.

"It stills seems kind of... overly-casual?" Allura phrased, eyeing the fort hesitantly.

Shiro laughed. "Yeah, that's the point. Come on in." he ushered, leading her inside by the hand. Neither Pidge nor Hunk missed the look of jealousy Keith gave at this act, for whom though, neither were sure.

The fort was extremely spacious. Lance had said it was one of his finest works, and he clearly wasn't kidding. The thing could easily hold all 7 of them inside laying down with extra room on either side, with stuffed animals, blankets and extra pillows for comfort lying around the edges of the fort. Lance had even put the extra thought in to bring sleeping bags just in case they decided to crash there on the floor. Their rooms were barely 20 feet away, but Lance was eager to turn this jam into a sleepover if he could. Even if it was just so he could get extra cozy with Allura… or Pidge.

The thought slipped into his mind before he could stop it, and Lance shook himself, gripping the pillow on his lap tightly as Pidge started the first movie. He didn't like Pidge like that. She was like one of the bros. Even after she admitted she was a girl, it still never seemed to fully sink in for him that she was of the opposite sex. Things were just the same as they always were, and that wasn't going to change, right?

He tried not to think about it anymore after that.

Pidge had selected a children's classic for the first movie, insisting that she catch the Alteans up on all things disney and dreamworks. Lance couldn't believe just how many movies she could store on that thing. Apparently she'd made some serious upgrades to her laptop, because there were well over a thousand movies and short series stored onto her hard drive. He didn't doubt that she actually stored every single disney movie in existence on there, at some point.

They were gonna be in for a long movie night.

They started with beauty and the beast, which Coran and Allura both loved. They chirped in periodically to ask questions about the talking furniture, and the meaning behind the rose, and why the beast was treated like a monster, and ended up delving into a deep conversation about racism near the end that Lance absolutely did not want to get involved in.

So he started the next movie.

He went for 101 Dalmations, which was one of his favorites as a kid, coming from a large family. He also really liked puppies, seeing as he had always been kind of a dog person.  
  
The conversation eventually quieted down as the next movie started, much to Lance's relief. He slid in next to Pidge once she finished her nerdy spiel about racism and human social behavior, and she passed him a bowl of popcorn, wiping some stray grease off her glasses with the sleeve of her shirt. "Thanks." he murmured, grabbing a handful as the opening scene started.

"Mhm." she responded. She crossed her legs together and scooped them up in both arms like a pretzel. Lance couldn't help but find her pose adorable.

He looked away, pretending to focus on the movie instead, but Pidge held most of his attention anyway. The way she giggled at the cute scenes, and covered her hand with her mouth to laugh was hard not to focus on. Her fingernails were short and pink. Her hands were small and cute. Her eyes were bright and gold, flecked with darker browns. They matched the gold rims of her lenses. Every single part of her was shining.

Lance found himself unable to look away.

Until Keith hit him in the shoulder with a pillow, breaking his concentration.  "Lance, move outta the way, you're blocking my view!" he hissed at him, throwing another pillow at him when Lance refused to respond.

"Where do you expect me to go?" Lance bit back after the second hit. "There's nowhere for me to move without having MY view of the screen blocked." he complained. He shoved a finger in Keith's direction, tracing a line in the air at the huge gap there was between him and Shiro. "Just scoot more to the right so you can see over Pidge, dude, don't take this out on me."

  
Lance was right, he totally could have just scooted closer to Shiro, which Pidge, Hunk and Allura did not fail to notice.. But Keith got pissed at his request.

"No, I like this spot, so I'm staying here. Why don't YOU move a little to the right?" he growled, tossing a third pillow, hitting Lance right in the face.

"Oh, now you're in for it!" he warned, picking up a stuffed animal this time and chucking it at the mullet-haired boy. Keith had quick reflexes though and dodged, but seemed distressed at the action.

"T-that was my favorite stuffed dog!" he whined, picking up the other pillow and standing on both knees. "You killed Muffin!" he cried, raising an arm and squinting to get a clear shot athis stuffed-animal-abuser. Lance put up both his arms in a pre-emptive defense.

But Shiro was faster.

He rolled between them, saving the day. "Stop it you two! We're here to watch a movie, not fight." he said in a warning tone, "Now settle down before I kick you both out of the fort."

Lance narrowed his eyes. "You can't kick me out of the fort! I made it! I should be the one  that gets to kick HIM out." Lance said sending Keith daggers with his eyes.

Pidge rolled her eyes. "How about you take my spot instead and no one gets kicked out of the fort?" she suggested, scooting a little ways out of the fort to make room for Lance.

The blue paladin relented. Leave it to Pidge to give the most logical solution to a tense situation. "Fiiine." he sighed, scooting over to take her seat, "But if that bonehead starts another fight I AM kicking him out." he hissed, giving the red paladin one last death glare.

Keith returned it icily, ready for revenge for his lost stuffed animal.

Pidge just rolled her eyes again and plopped down again, shooing Shiro away and mouthing 'I got this' over her shoulder. Shiro wore a proud smile as he returned to his spot close to Allura. _That's my girl._ he thought to himself, before casting an unmistakably hurt glance at Keith. Pidge winced and threw the dumb mullet a glare, making him wither instantly and avoid her gaze.

  
Lance grinned, oblivious, probably thinking he won the staring contest.

"Can we _please_ return to the movie?" Coran pleaded, "I have to know what happens next!"

Lance sighed, and then smiled sourly. "Yeah, yeah, ok, I'm unpausing.." he trailed off after pressing the play button. The rest of the movie went without a hitch, and everyone got wrapped up in the plot. They finished the rest of the movie in stride before moving onto Cinderella, which Lance was surprised to find Pidge really into, and then The Little Mermaid, which everyone was shocked to find Lance **loved**.

"Hey, I like mermaids okay? Lay off." he muttered, turning back to the movie and refusing to look at his crew. Despite the criticism though he couldn't help but sing along to "Kiss the girl" when the boat scene started. Pidge giggled and joined in halfway through.

After three more movies (Treasure Planet, which was Keith's favorite as he clearly enjoyed sharing it with Shiro, Atlantis, which both Alteans loved, the Jungle Book, which Hunk seemed enthused about) Pidge insisted they watch The Lion King to show the Alteans what earthen lions looked like (since apparently there were some differences). As they neared the stampede scene Pidge and Lance both perked up, eager to see who the weakest links in their crew were.

No one expected it to be Keith. As soon as the scene started he was sniffling and crying into his pillow like a little baby. Shiro had to comfort him and Coran both, who sidled up next to him and began wailing into his shoulder. It was an interesting scene for all of them.

  
About three fourths of the way through the movie, though, Lance started to get tired. He snuck a sleeping bag from the edge of the fort and snuggled under his blanket, laying across his pillow lazily. Pidge joined him after a few minutes, snuggling into her own sleeping bag while still sitting up, becoming a little movie-watching worm. From behind him, Lance could hear someone snoring, and turned to see Keith completely wiped out, lying sideways across the floor with his head on Shiro's lap. Shiro caught Lance looking and raised a finger to his lips, shushing his already-forming-laughter. Pidge smirked as well, and Lance swore he could hear Hunk snap a picture with his phone, though Shiro didn't seem to notice. Allura began nodding off too and Coran prepped a pillow for her, before running off to get another cup of alien juice. Pidge checked her wristwatch as The Lion King finally finished up, looking around at the other paladins.

She laid down next to Lance, smiling lightly. "I don't think everyone's gonna be able to stay up for another movie.." she whispered, taking off her glasses slowly. "Even though we all got naps in I guess waking the whole crew up early really took a toll huh?" she snickered.

Lance frowned and pinched her nose between his forefinger and thumb. "You're the only one that didn't get a nap! How can you possibly still be awake?" he asked in irritation. "You should've been the first one to pass out, not Keith"

And yet Pidge didn't even look remotely tired. She looked up at him with bright gold orbs, flashing startlingly white teeth through her smug little grin. "Sleep is for the weak." she teased, sticking her tongue out at him with a purr. Lance let go of her nose and hmph'd, rolling over and climbing into his sleeping bag angrily. He ignored the fact that he had really wanted to steal her tongue for himself in that moment, and crushed his head against his pillow.

_I must be crazy with sleep-deprivation.._ he lamented silently, and closed his eyes. _That's all.. I'll feel normal in the morning.._ he yawned.

Stretching his legs into the very edges of his sleeping roll, Lance slowly dozed off.

 

\----

 

Something hit him in the face, rousing him. He'd been having a very good dream about puppies, but now he was staring down, where something oddly shaped and very warm clung to his midsection, sniffling. _Pidge_ he realized.

The girl had seemingly rolled closer to him in her sleep, ditching her sleeping bag and cuddling up next to his, whimpering and tugging at his side as she dreamt. Something was bothering her.. Was she having a nightmare..?  
  
Lance sat up and rubbed his eyes, blinking away the sleep. He checked the clock on his phone. It wasn't even two in the morning yet. But how was he supposed to go back to sleep with Pidge pinning him down? Should he wake her up?

He deliberated for a moment, and decided to chance it. From the looks of it she wasn't having a very good dream anyway.

He poked at her cheek, pushing her drooling mouth away from his bag. "Pidge.." he whispered, "Psst, hey, Pidge!"

The girl murmured something like "not now you big bear" and rolled over, ignoring him. Lance popped a vein. "Pidge!" he hissed, a bit louder this time, kicking her with his foot. This seemed to wake her.

Pidge opened her eyes slowly, looking around with wet, dilated pupils. Had she been crying? She rubbed her eyes and Lance couldn't quite tell anymore, but there were rings of red circling her eyelids.

"Lance?" she asked, sitting up and assessing her situation. She realized how close she had gotten to him in the night and flushed a deep red, scrambling away from him in panic. "I'm sorry!" she squeaked out, fumbling with her sleeping bag on the far end of the fort and slipping under it, looking embarrassed.

Lance pretended not to notice, and shook his head tiredly. "S'no problem." he mumbled. "Were you having a nightmare? You looked kinda spooked." he mentioned.

Pidge nodded from under her sleeping bag. "Mhm, yeah. Guess I should thank you for waking me from it." she admitted with a sigh.

"What was it about?" Lance pried, resting a cheek on one hand, interested.

"Don't remember." she muttered, turning on her side. She was definitely lying this time, but Lance let it slide. It was probably too personal for her to talk about.  "Go back to sleep." she ordered, and Lance complied with a shrug, slipping back under his covers.

"Mkay. G'night." he yawned.

"Night.." she whispered.

It was a while before either of them fell back asleep.


	2. Stranger at the Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Competition can be a good thing, and also a very, very bad thing.. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpB5ycrHjXA)

_ We all are stranger creatures than when we all started out as kids _

_ Culture forbids _

_ We have romantic fantasies about what dying truly is _

_ Fall off the grid _

 

_ We live for the night's decor _

_ It reveals what we dream of _

_ I know there's someone at the door _

_ They called for help _

_ Of this I'm sure _

_ But do I want to say goodbye to all the glowing eyes? _ __  
_  
_ __ I'm holding onto what I know

_ And what I know I must let go _

_ But I would rather play a song.. for the eyes to sing along. _

 

_ We all know somebody who knows somebody who's doing great _

_ I know some people who know people who are flying straight _

_ But I'll kindly enter into rooms of depression _

_ While ceiling fans and idle fans will take my life again _

 

_ We live for the night's decor _

_ It reveals what we dream of _

_ I know there's someone at the door _

_ They called for help _

_ Of this I'm sure _

_ But do I want to say goodbye to all the glowing eyes? _

 

_ I'm holding onto what I know _

_ And what I know I must let go _

_ But I would rather play a song.. for the eyes to sing along. _

 

_ This room is far too dark _

_ For us to stay around _

_ Redemption's not that far _

_ And darkness is going down _

 

_ This room is far too dark _

_ For us to stay around _

_ Redemption's not that far _

_ And darkness is going down _

 

_ I'm holding onto what I know _

_ And what I know I must let go _

_ But I would rather play a song _

_ For the eyes to sing along _

 

_ For the eyes to sing along.. long.. long _

_ Make them stop.. Make them stop.. _

_ Make them stop.. Make them stop.. _

_ Make them stop _

 

_ \----  _

 

Pidge awoke to the loud sound of someone snoring… directly in her ear. She pushed herself up off her pillow to find a snoozing Lance curled up next to her, sleeping bag left abandoned a few feet away. Pidge sighed, stretching over to collect her glasses and slipped them on. 

  
_ Well.. I suppose it's only fair, after I fell asleep on him.. _ she thought to herself, resigning herself to lay back down. She didn't want to wake the sleeping boy just yet. She sighed again and rolled over onto her side, looking directly into Lance's snoring face. He looked like he was having a good dream, a smile spread on his lips, and a thin trail of drool sliding from it. Pidge deadpanned, and closed his mouth for him, giggling quietly as he groaned, but continued to sleep.

 

She watched him for a few more minutes, starting to grow dreary again herself. She definitely didn't get enough sleep last night after that nightmare; her limbs felt heavy and tired. But she didn't get the chance to fall back asleep.. not when she heard the distinct click of someone's phone, and a camera flash.

 

"Hunk!" she hissed, rearing up to glare at him over Lance's head. "You. Delete that. Right. Now." she ordered him, her tone making the larger paladin freeze in his tracks. She narrowed her eyes.   
  


"Now." she told him again.

 

Hunk gulped, honestly intimidated for a second, but then smiled. "Not a chance.. hehe.. You'll have to catch me and make me, sister." he goaded, fleeing as soon as Pidge attempted to get up and chase him. But her movement was hindered by the arms of the boy sleeping next to her, and instead of standing, she just sort of.. flopped onto his stomach, elbowing the lanky zombie right in the gut. Lance squealed in a high-pitched tone and sat bolt upright, suddenly awake.

 

"Wha-huh? Whossattacking?"

  
Pidge struggled vainly in his group. "Me! Now let me go you big lump!" she complained, grasping one of his arms and attempting to move it off her, but the paladin beneath her only gripped tighter, drawing her into a hug.

 

"Lance!" she exclaimed, blushing fiercely. 

 

"Don't go.. We gottaa, fight the evil furries.." the boy drawled, clearly still half-asleep. Pidge groaned in annoyance, resigning herself to the older teen's grip. Instead of fighting it, she turned on her side, planting another elbow on his stomach in a definitely-uncomfortable-position, and pinched his side. Hard.

 

Lance screamed. "Ahh! Hey!! Pidge?! What was that for?!" he yelled, doubling over and knocking her off his lap, gripping his side. 

 

"For holding me hostage!' she exclaimed, "Now get up. It's already 10 in the morning." She got to her feet and straightening her shirt, ducking her head under the entrance to the fort to glance around for Hunk, wondering which way the mischievous boy went. There was no way she was gonna let him show that picture to anyone else.

 

It took her only 5 minutes to track him down, cornering him against the wall of the yellow lion's garage, an evil gleam in her eyes. "Give. Me. The. Phone." she growled, edging closer. Her proximity caused the older boy to back right up into the wall, sweating nervously.

 

"N-nope! No!" he stuttered out, "Not doing that." he said, raising the phone well above his head. Pidge glowered at him. 

 

"Don't make me get it from you myself." she warned.   
  


Hunk grinned. "With those stumpy little arms? I'd like to see you try." he teased, and Pidge lunged.

 

Instead of leaping straight for the phone though, she aimed a little lower; grappling onto his forearm and climbing up around his back like some sort of koala. Hunk shrieked, flailing in panic as Pidge edged closer to the phone.

 

"No!! Pidge! Get off of me!! Somebody heeeeelp!" he squealed, trying desperately to push Pidge off his chest, but the girl was incredibly clingy. She reached around his neck for support and hoisted herself above Hunk's head, reaching out with her fingertips for the phone in the yellow paladin's left hand. 

 

But then the world fell out from under her, or, more specifically, Hunk did. Their combined weight caused him to lose his balance and he stumbled, falling face-first onto the hard tile of the garage floor. He let out a loud "OOF", and rubbed his cheek where it had turned red from the pain. The phone had flown out of his hand when he landed and clacked a few feet in front of them. Someone with long, lanky arms scooped it off the ground. Lance.

 

The boy gave them both a skeptical look. "What are you two doing?" he demanded, eyeing the position his two friends were in on the floor dubiously. "Should I be concerned?"

 

"LANCE!" Pidge exclaimed, scrambling off Hunk's back and giving the taller boy a pleading stare. "You've gotta erase his latest photo on that thing! He took a picture of us sleeping next to each other!" 

 

Lance reddened. "Wh-what?" he balked. He turned on the phone and flitted through the photos in a panic. "Oh my god, Hunk, seriously?!"

 

Hunk gave a sheepish grin, tousling the back of his hair lightly. "Seriously. You two are seriously cute."

 

Lance face flamed. "I'm deleting this right now." he said suddenly, putting his finger over what both paladins on the floor thought must have been the delete button. 

 

"NO!" Hunk yelled, struggling.

 

"Yes." Lance hissed. And pressed the button. Then pressed another. Pidge looked at him, but Hunk didn't seem to notice. He scrambled up off the floor and snatched his phone, before checking his photos meticulously.   
  


"It's gone..." he sniffed, clutching the phone to his chest. "I can't believe you actually deleted it." he whined, giving Lance the most pathetic stare of all time.

 

Lance stiffened. "Hey bud.. It's no big deal.. You've still got the ones of Keith and Shiro on there right?" Lance offered, but his voice was layered with guilt.

  
"The one with you two was cuter though!" Hunk wailed, tears starting to form in hisPidge and Lance stared after him, dumbfounded.

 

Pidge was red as a tomato as she straightened herself and re-positioned her glasses on her face. "He's gonna make us pay him back for that.. isn't he?"

 

Lance was just as red. "Yep." he confirmed, before walking off after Hunk in defeat. Pidge sighed. Her life was hellish enough without Hunk shipping her with a crewmate.

 

\----

 

By the time Pidge got back to the lounge, everyone had eaten breakfast and gathered around the pillow fort, cleaning up last night's mess. There were snack wrappers, loose food, stuffed animals and unidentifiable stains  _ everywhere _ . They really had their work cut out for them this time.

 

Pidge started clearing up the wires and bits of technology she had gotten out to get her laptop connected. She checked her laptop and noticed a new text document had been made this morning while she was away. She looked around, wondering which of her friends made it, but everyone else was too busy working to notice her inquiring stare. Shrugging, Pidge closed the laptop and put the access panel back where it belonged before a maniacal laugh made her stiffen. 

 

Slowly, Pidge turned around. Most of the wrappers and food from last night had been cleaned up already, but there were still pillows and blankets everywhere. And one of them had found it's way smack onto Lance's face. 

 

The stray throwing arm and devilish grin on Keith's face was the only giveaway to who had thrown it.

 

The room fell into a tense silence. The cushion slowly slid off Lance's features, revealing the boy's murderous scowl. 

 

"WHO THREW THAT?" he demanded. "STEP FORWARD AND FACE ME LIKE A MAN!" 

 

Hunk raised his palms in a placating gesture and slowly backed away while Keith stepped forward, rolling up his sleeves with a challenging gleam in his eyes. Lance didn't look surprised in the slightest. He picked up the pillow Keith had thrown at him and thrust out his chest like a war-bound gorilla. "FIGHT ME." he challenged, readying his pillow with a punch. Keith stepped forward to do so...

 

But before he could get very far someone  _ else  _ threw a pillow at Lance, managing to miss him by a mile and hit Pidge instead. The blow hit her square between the shoulder blades, and caused her to tumble over her equipment with a startled squeak. "Oops.." Pidge heard Shiro whisper regretfully, and she frowned.

 

"Someone really wants to die today." she said slowly, picking up the pillow she got decked with and marching over toward Lance's side. She glowered at the boy that hit her while he tried to avoid her gaze with an innocent whistle. But Pidge knew it was him.

 

She raised her pillow and threw it smack into his face, watching smugly as the boy went down with a surprised wheeze. Hunk made a very high-pitched squeal and Lance hit her with a grin and a high five. "Nice hit!" he exclaimed.

 

Keith continued to glower at both of them, giving Pidge edgy vibes, so she stuck a tongue out at him, watching as his face grew a deep, crimson shade of red. Oh, they were in for it now.

  
  


\----

  
  


Soon, all five of them were caught in a pillow war, sacks of feathers flying left and right at hazardous speeds. After getting ransacked by quite a few stray pillows, Hunk began to make a makeshift fort for himself. He stacked it nice and tall before gesturing for Pidge to join him. Pidge complied eagerly, and together they held a defensive position behind their fortress, stocking up on pillows and waiting for their time to shine. 

 

The other three paladins were locked in an all-out war atop the couches, facing each other off with incredible power and speed. The display was honestly a bit intimidating. Shiro was an even match for Lance and Keith, dodging their tosses and defending himself well. But when Pidge and Hunk decided to get involved, he didn't stand a chance. 

 

With the four of them against one, it took no time at all for them to bury him under a mountain of pillows, effectively trapping him underneath the heavy, plushy mounds. Shiro grunted in defeat, and the war continued.

 

This left Lance and Keith to their own devices, and they stared each other down from their perches on opposite ends of the room, holding their pillows in respective death grips. Pidge could swear she heard 80s cowboy movie music playing from somewhere in the background, when she looked down and noticing Hunk fidgeting with his iPhone. She rolled her eyes.  _ Boys _ , she thought.

 

Not wanting to endure the masculinity test much longer, Pidge decided to intervene. "THINK FAST" she hollered suddenly, and tossed a pillow as hard as she could at Lance. It hit his beautiful face with a loud smack, sending the boy toppling over the edge of the couch. Pidge could've swore she heard him scream, and grinned proudly. 

 

"Gotcha Lance!" she smirked.

 

Lance groaned and sat up, giving Pidge a heart-wrenching pout. "What was that for?" he asked the traitor. 

 

"For being overdramatic." she said curtly.

 

"You don't know what overdramatic is!!" Lance cried back. He picked up a pillow to defend against Keith's next attack. "And now Keith's got the highground!" he whined.

 

Keith grinned and Pidge shrugged noncommittally. "Not my problem" she responded.

 

Keith hit his bitter rival in the face and Lance tripped. His fingers snagged on Keith's shirt and together they toppled onto the floor into a pile of limbs. Pidge tried not to feel jealous about their position, but she didn't quite succeed.

 

She stuck out her tongue at the two of them, and dangled her legs over the edge of the pillow fort. "Looks like  _ I _ won this fight pretty boys."

 

Lance shot upright at that, kneeing Keith's in the process. "NO you didn't! We're not out of this yet! Right Keith?"   
  
Keith groaned pathetically and Pidge snickered. Lance's face couldn't have gotten any redder.

 

"Well, I'm still raring to fight anyway! The only reason Keith is KO'd is cause I fell on him, since your pillow throws didn't even sting!" he said. 

 

Pidge snorted, "Yes they did. You screamed when I nailed you with it." she reminded him.   
  
Apparently, Lance's face could get redder. Pidge could've swore she saw smoke coming out of his ears at this point. "I DID NOT, YOU LIAR. YOU THROW LIKE A GIRL."

 

"I  _ AM _ A GIRL!" Pidge snapped, and lobbed another pillow at him. He dodged it and rolled closer to her with pillow in hand, prepared to strike, but Pidge was faster. She snagged another pillow from her pile and tossed it at the boy, hitting him in the leg. Lance went down like a sack of potatoes, and Pidge snickered, before leaning back against the pillow fort with a smug smile.

 

"See? I throw a heck of a lot better than you." she said. "You can't even reach my pillow fort." 

 

"Uh, it's my pillow fort." Hunk reminded her. "I made it."   
  
"Right, sorry Hunk."

 

"We'll see who can't reach who's pillow fort.. " Lance muttered, peeling himself off the ground slowly. He chucked the pillow in his left hand at the girl suddenly, which gave Pidge very little time to react. She dodged to the right at the last second, and could the wind blow past her hair as the pillow narrowly missed her face. She glared down at the boy, a tad disturbed by how close that was.

 

"You missed me." she pointed out.

 

Lance clutched his fists. He got back on his feet just as Pidge rushed down to meet him, taking the last two pillows from her stock with her to attack. Lance leaped backwards as she rushed him, parrying both pillows with the one he had left. 

 

Pidge attacked him like a human-windmill, arms flailing wildly over each other in a fluid motion, giving Lance no time to counterattack. But after a solid minute of playing the defensive, he finally managed to dislodge one of the pillows from Pidge's hands, leaving it to fly in the air and land right on Keith's stomach. Keith let out a groan.

 

"Sorry man!" Lance apologized, still trying to defend himself against Pidge's attack. But suddenly a mighty roar echoed around the room, making them both freeze.

 

Shiro had  _ revived  _ himself. 

 

With another frightening roar, he leapt up from his burial of pillows and struck both paladins under the jaws. Pidge and Lance collapsed together, KOed after just one hit. They lay, crumpled on the floor as the world spun in circles around them. Shiro let out another roar. Slowly, dramatically, he turned his gaze toward Hunk.

 

The boy gave an undignified squeaked.

 

Hunk grit his teeth as the older boy charged him. He squeezed his eyes shut, preparing himself for the worst. 

 

Suddenly, a lightbulb went off in his brain. He had the highground here.. he could pull his signature move, and win the game, all he needed to do was.. Hunk laughed, and Shiro froze, peering up at the boy with wild eyes. 

 

"Why the heck are you laughing?" he asked, breaking out into a cold sweat at Hunk's expression. He'd never seen the yellow paladin look so  _ evil _ before.

 

"Cause I'm about to win the game." Hunk grinned, before disappearing behind his fort.

 

Shiro stared after him. Out of all the possible responses Hunk could have given them, he hadn;t expected to hear that. But in that moment, pure malicious intent seemed to be radiating from behind that fort, like a predator was about to swoop in and swallow him whole. Shiro was  _ terrified. _

 

And then, as if answering a prayer, Hunk suddenly re-appeared. He was vaulting from the top of his pillow fort in a beautiful leap of faith, his arms spread wide like wings. The wings of an angel, in Shiro's opinion. 

 

He watched him fly through the air in awe, his jaw dropping at the sight of his friend's majestic leap. The pillow he held before slid from his fingertips though as Hunk descended, completely encompassing the black paladin in his shadow.

 

The surviving paladins watched, dutifully, as Shiro, their beloved friend and leader, disappeared under Hunk's lovely mass. 

 

Hunk stood, victory plain on his face. "I won." he said simply, and no one argued.

  
  


\----

  
  
  


After getting an earful from Allura about leaving her lounge a mess and getting assigned extra training as punishment, the paladins headed outside to do some training in their lions and get themselves warmed up. Coran informed them that they were close to an asteroid belt, which was the perfect spot to do some target practice while they prepared for their next warp. Shiro had jumped at the idea, ushering them all outside to get started on some activities. 

 

"Alright team. We've got a real clean setup here so let's make the most of it. First up is target practice. I'll set a marker here so first one back to get 30 shots in wins!" Shiro said, eliciting some excitement from his friends with the idea of competition. "Everyone got that?"    
  
"Yep." "You know it!" "Duh." "Yessir."

 

"Good. Here we go."

 

The paladins braced themselves.

 

"3…..2…..1….. **GO!** " Shiro yelled, rightbefore blasting off towards the asteroid belt at top speed. The five of them started out neck and neck, streaking toward the asteroid belt in unison.

 

As they got closer, Lance and Keith split from the main group to start shooting at the rocks on the left-hand side of the belt. Pidge clenched her teeth and dove between them. There was no way she was gonna let those two win this one. She cut between Lance and shot at the four asteroids he was going for, effectively stealing them. Pidge smirked.

 

"Hey!! Get your own asteroids!" Lance complained.

 

"Sorry man, you snoozr you lose." she teased him smugly, and continued to shoot down rocks in front of her. She counted 13 asteroids down when, suddenly, something heavy and something hot blasted into her side, sending her lion spiraling out of control. She gaped at the blue lion floating behind her, absolutely furious.

 

"LANCE! What the  _ quiznak _ ?!" Pidge seethed, glaring at him from over the comm screen in pure vehemence. "You  **SHOT** me." she hissed.

 

"I didn't.." Lance lied, rather half-assedly. Pidge sputtered.

 

"UM, YES, YOU VERY CLEARLY DID." she rebuked, glowering at the boy. She'd had it up to here with him and was about ready to smash into him with his lion. 

 

Until Shiro flew in between them.

 

"Alright, alright.. break it up you two. Pidge, back down. You shouldn't finish fights, even if Lance  _ did  _ start them. And  _ Lance _ ," the boy said sternly, "that's 10 seconds off your time for attacking a teammate." he said, "friendly fire is _ never _ an option. You know that." 

 

Lance's face fell. He did know that. He didn't know what came over him. "Sorry.." he mumbled halfheartedly, giving Pidge on sparing glance before flying out of her range.

 

Pidge gripped her controls and rocked herself forward into the asteroid field. She wasn't sure what she was feeling right now, but it hurt,  _ a lot. _ She tried to snap herself back to her senses, but her vision was red, and her face was hot with tears.

 

_ Focus, Pidge! Focus. This isn't the time to cry..  _ she whined to herself, but nothing seemed to change. She just, couldn't get over the fact that Lance had shot at her. 

 

Pidge continued to blast away at the asteroids, eyes gleaming as rock particles flew. Even as the tears kept streaming, she continued to train. They dripped down onto her jumpsuit and began to wet her gloves, too, but she didn't stop. She was so  _ angry, _ so  _ frustrated _ .. But right now.. All she could do with that anger was blow up stupid space rocks and try not to think about the sharp sting of betrayal in her gut.

 

_ This isn't fair.. _

 

\----

 

In the end, Keith won. Undeterred by Lance thanks to his fight with Pidge, he'd crossed the finish line first, earning a time of 2:18. Hunk crossed second, followed by Shiro, then her, then Lance. 

 

They had both lagged behind, and Shiro wasted no time scolding them for it. "You two need to get your act together. If the Galra attack, we need to be able to form Voltron, and work as a team."

 

He sighed when each of them gave him a rebellious "Hmph" in response. "Alright then.. I guess we're gonna have to do this the hard way. Lance, Pidge, you're going to be the first team on the maneuverability test."

 

"WHAT?!" they exclaimed in unison, glaring at each other over the communication holograms. 

 

_ "I can't work with him!!"  "I can't work with her!!" _   
  


Shiro frowned. "You can and you will! Now.. here's how this test is gonna work..."

 

\----   
  


Lance grumbled, position his lion on the far end of the asteroid belt. He's never had anything against Pidge before, in fact, he kinda liked her, but her recent tendency to show off and get in his way was starting to get annoying. They already had one big show off on their team.. wasn't that enough? Why did PIDGE of all people have to start getting all high-and-mighty on him too?  _ Just what was her deal? _

 

Lance let out a sigh. He just didn't get it. Why were girls some so frustrating..

 

"Lance, we've got the green light to go." Pidge told him suddenly, and Lance nearly jumped out of his seat.

 

"Erm, righ-right. I'm ready." he stuttered out, tightening his grip on the joysticks as Pidge looked at him. Lance didn't fail to notice that her eyes were red and puffy, like they always got, just after she cried..

 

His stomach knotted.

 

"Um…. Before we go.." he began awkwardly, eyes flitting between her and his boots on the floor.  

 

Pidge eyes sliced into him like a hot knife through butter. "Yes?" she asked icily. 

 

Lance flinched, and suddenly the guilt flooded through him all at once. "I'm… I'm sorry about shooting you in the relay earlier.." he said slowly, eyes glued to the floor as his face heated with shame.  "It's just.. I hate it when people try and show off.. It makes me feel like.. feel like.." 

 

Pidge stared at him point blank, hands falling away from the stopwatch. She sighed, propping her head on her hand and giving him an understanding look. "I know. You don't have to say anything. I'm the one that should be sorry." she sighed, shaking her head. "I guess.. maybe I just got a little jealous.." she admitted quietly.

 

Lance stared at her. "What?"    
  


"Nothing. Here we go." she said suddenly.

 

"W-wait!" Lance panicked, "Pidge!! I'm not ready!!!" he pleaded.

 

Pidge ignored him.  "3…"

 

Lance tried not to panic. He frantically searched the asteroid field in front of him, trying to find the best path through. He could do this. He could do this. Focus.  _ Focus. _ he told himself.

 

"2…" 

 

He wasn't going to disappoint his team. He was gonna fly fast, and fly strong. He was the blue paladin of Voltron. A savior of the universe.  _ He could do this. _

 

"1…."   
  
_ With Pidge on his side, he could beat Keith. _

 

" **GO GO GO!!** " Pidge shouted, an excited grin plastered to her face as Lance shot forward. He all but jumped at the controls, jolting them forward at her command and zooming through the first obstacle, a wild look in his eyes and a smile peeking at his lips.

 

_ Time to win this.  _ His thoughts resounded. 

 

He dove between a gap in the asteroids to the right, squeezing through them expertly. He twisted his lion a tad to the left to counter the momentum before propelling himself towards the next gap. He continued this pattern seamlessly.. Flying in and out of the tight spaces and weaving between them in a tight blue line, astounding his teammates.    
  
"Look at him go.." Hunk mumbled in awe, and Keith nodded in mute agreement. Lance was  _ fast _ . There was no denying that.

 

Pidge cheered him on loudly, whooping and hollering at every maneuver he aced. Lance was sincerely glad she was on his side again, and he grinned as he neared the finish line, chest bursting with pride. He was immediately surrounded by his teammates as he crossed it, and got slammed between each of their lions. He laughed and tried to shoo them off, but they just pushed themselves closer, sincerely proud of him and in need of showing this through metal-on-metal affection. Shiro grinned. 

 

"Pidge! What was my time?" Lance called out, looking at her through the comm screen. 

 

"59 ticks!" she relayed to him, "You did excellent out there!" she beamed. She held up her hand for a mock high-five through the screen and Lance mimicked it, slapping the screen before pulling his hand back in a jellyfish maneuver. Pidge giggled. 

 

Shiro's face appeared over the comm screens and Lance turned to him nervously, but there was nothing but a broad smile lighting his features. "Looks like you two made up finally!" he chuckled, noting the faint blush on Pidge's cheeks. 

 

Lance scoffed. "Well, you know I couldn't pass up a chance to humiliate Keith.." he boasted, and Shiro rolled his eyes.

 

"Right, right.. Well now that you've done that, it's Pidge's turn. Get into position you two!"    
  
"Roger!" Lance said.

 

"Roger.." Pidge echoed. 

 

Lance noticed she looked a bit pale. He pulled out his time device and swapped places with her, waiting at the end of the asteroid belt as she got into position.

 

"You ready?" he asked her.   
  
Pidge's face was now ghostly pale on the other end of the screen, and Lance's eyes widened. He had no idea a white person could, in fact, get that pale, so the sight of it was kind of unnerving.

 

"Pidge..?" he asked again, cautiously.

 

"No..." she admitted slowly, eyes downcast. "I really suck at tight maneuvers." she told him.

 

"Pffff. Don't give me that, you totally got this! You and your lion both are the lightest on the team. The two of you are practically built for speed." he told her, watching her face lift to meet his eyes. He tried for a reassuring smile, but he felt just as nervous as Pidge looked, so he doubted it helped much. "Just.. keep your eyes forward, and try to look as far along the path as you can before you get there. See the gaps before you move for them. You'll do great." 

 

Pidge smiled softly, and gave a shaky nod. "Alright… I'll try that.." she breathed. Her eyes focused forward, and this time she looked determined to give it her best shot.

"I'm ready."

 

"About time." Lance teased, and looked back down at his stopwatch. "Let's do this then. No hard feelings if you don't beat my time. I'm a natural pilot, after all." he said, and even winked.   
  
Pidge rolled her eyes.

 

"Alright then…. 3…..… 2.......... 1…..…." Lance added an extra pause, for dramatic effect, " **GO!!** " he hollered suddenly, watching as Pidge.. ah… completely disappeared from the starting line. 

 

Lance's eyes bulged out a bit. He searched frantically around the asteroid belt when his eyes finally caught sight of the green blur flashing through the course at a downright frightening speed. 

 

Lance flushed, astounded at what he was seeing. Pidge's lion was weaving so beautifully between the rocks... rolling through her transitions seamlessly and barely giving pause between gaps. Not only was her speed astounding, but her reflexes were too. He kinda felt like he was watching Keith fly right now, instead of Pidge. It was pretty hard to believe she was nervous about flying just seconds ago..

 

Before he knew it, she was across the finish line, clocking in at a mere 42 ticks. She was breathless as she asked Lance for her time, and when he responded she looked like she might pass out.   
  


"Wh-woah what?! Really?! I thought it was a lot longer than that!!" she breathed, eyes alight. "I can't believe it.." she whispered, eyes alight.

 

Lance was still staring at her over the comm link, unable to quite tear his gaze away from her yet. "Yeah... me neither.." he whispered back, a bit numbly. 

 

He turned off the comm link and stared at the stopwatch in his hands. He wasn't quite sure why he didn't feel inadequate when Pidge beat his time. Whenever Keith did something like that, he'd get furious.. But right now all he was feeling was.. awe, and.. a bit of pride. He couldn't deny he was proud of her. And Pidge was proud of herself too.

 

Lance couldn't quite get the glow of her amber eyes out of his mind either. The way her own pride had shone through them, with a rich, golden glow, seemed to be burned into his mind. It felt warm. Warmer than he's ever felt.

 

\----

 

After their amazing primary performance, Shiro let team Keith and Hunk go next. Keith had done an amazing job as always, but he still didn't quite beat Pidge's time. He clocked in at a regrettable 44 seconds. His performance was just as agile as hers had been, but unfortunately his lion was a tad bit bulkier than hers, like Lance had said. Skill alone didn't always get good times in racing, as Pidge had just proven.

 

And, Hunk, well.. Hunk wasn't built for speed. He clipped an asteroid too, so despite doing really well for his size, his final time was 1:04. Together, team Heith placed second behind Pidge and Lance.

 

After congratulating them on their win, Shiro went in with his own lion and made a record time with those wings of his, finishing the track in just 39 ticks. It was frustrating, to say the least. Lance couldn't stop complaining about how the wings were "cheating" as Shiro ordered them to head back into the castle.

 

Pidge followed behind her team, feeling pretty proud of her performance, when something shiny caught her eye. Curious, she turned her lion around and flew in its direction, zooming in on the object with her lion's screen. "What is this..?" she questioned curiously as the strange object came into focus.It was some sort of high-tech pyramid, with a strange round contraption situated on the top. The edges of the pyramid were black with lines of green running through them, seeming to power the contraption, which glowed green as well. It looked almost like a dark rover, except it clearly was not a robot or capable of recording anything or flying.. Just what was it for..?

 

"Pidge!" Shiro called to her, "What are you doing over there?!"

 

Pidge yelped, startled by his sudden comm connection. "Oh uh, sorry Shiro.. I just found this cool device.. and.."   
  
Shiro gave her a knowing look, cutting her off. Pidge pouted and let loose her best set of puppy dog eyes, effectively paralyzing him. 

 

_ I have to have this device _ , she thought,  _ I just have to.  _

 

"Alright, alright.." he agreed finally. "You can take it in. But seriously, be careful with it." he warned, "I don't want you letting loose any booby traps inside the castle. You remember what happened last time." 

 

Pidge rolled her eyes. "That was a mild calibration error, remember? Besides, this thing looks totally harmless. It's probably just a transport device." she told him.

 

Shiro stared at her, not even looking mildly impressed. 

 

Pidge sighed. "Fine.. I'll be careful Shiro, alright?" she muttered.

 

Shiro smiled. "That's what I like to hear." he praised. "Just don't be late for dinner! And let us know if you find anything."

 

"Yeah, yeah, will do." Pidge responded sarcastically, before shutting off the communications and preparing to load the device onto her lion. "Time to see what this little buddy's made of.." she beamed. 

 

\----

 

Turns out neither Allura nor Coran knew what the strange black device was, so the crew left it up to Pidge to study it. Pidge was delighted, to say the least. She spent the next few hours weighing, measuring, and hooking the device up to every computer she had on her lab surface. She ran simulations, frequency tests, and modeling programs for hours before finally starting to wear down.

 

The only thing stopping her from cracking this thing open on the spot was her desperate need for sleep. She hadn't gotten much of any the last two days thanks to her video-feed-hacking and prank, and the movie night they'd had. So, reluctantly, before setting her final tests in motion, Pidge turned the lab lights off and headed off to her bed.

  
  


\----

 

Pidge opens her eyes. 

 

_ Something is wrong.  _

 

She's not in her bed, nor in the lab where she was working earlier. Instead she seems to be positioned upright, situated against something very hard, and  _ very, very cold _ . She's shivering against the surface violently, the air around her frigid. It slices through her lungs with every breath she takes, and it feels like she's not getting enough air. The world around her dips in and out of focus, a hazy white cloud fogging up the edge of her vision, and puffing out in front of her in smaller clouds of exhaled mist. Somewhere in her surroundings, a loud, feminine voice is blaring through the walls, yelling something incoherent over the urgent beat of a siren, timed with several flashing red lights. An alarm of some sort. Something's gone wrong in the castle.

 

Pidge looks down, and inhales sharply at what she sees.  **_Blood_ ** . There's blood  _ everywhere _ . The sticky crimson substance is all over her hands, her suit, her bayard.. it's running down her legs and dripping onto the floor, mixing and swirling into different shades of red and making her dizzy. With that much blood coming from her.. there's no way she's going to make it. What happened? Where did all the blood come from? Why wasn't she in her room?   
  
Pidge looked around frantically, searching for answers, but before she gets them, suddenly, the scenery changes. Instead of standing on the white tiled floor of the castle, her boots were now heels-deep in sand, white and grainy and incredibly soft. It stretches all along the coast in front of her, up to the waterside, where a brilliant blue sea lapped softly at its shores. A warm breeze blows in from the east, blowing gently through Pidge's hair and making her turn away from the ocean. Her eyes widen at the scene.

 

Towering behind her were large, lush green trees. They were tall and firm, with large green trunks, that almost resembled palm trees, in a way. Behind them lay some sort of alien jungle, deep and mysterious, with random patches of sunlight bursting through its canopy. Some sort of birdsong was audible through the trees, pleasing and harmonic, and the leaves of the jungle seemed to sway gently to the tune of their singing. Pidge smiles. She wasn't big on nature, but something about this planet seemed welcoming, inviting.. homey even. If she ever found a place like this she'd sure it'd make a great vacation spot for the team.

 

Suddenly, a voice cries out, interrupting her thoughts, and Pidge jolts around. The birds in the forest fly off in fright, leaving a tense silence in their wake. Pidge gulps, eyes flitting across the beach in search of what had made that noise.

 

_ There. _ In front of the surf. There'sa young boy crouched over the waves, ears flattened onto his back.  _ Wait, his.. ears..? _

 

They're long and fluffy, kind of resembling a cat's, except with orange and black tiger-markings.  While his ears may be alien, the rest of him is definitely humanoid. He has dark, rich chocolate skin, smooth and covered in black-stripe tattoos that match his ears. His hair is also a dark, messy black, braided down to his waist with beautiful tropical flowers. He's wearing nothing but simple light pants, which are soaked up to his knees with ocean water. As Pidge watches, it becomes evident that the child is sobbing where he stands. Her heart pangs.

 

Pidge tries to take a step forward, but finds herself frozen, unable to speak or move.  _ This must be a dream.. _ she realizes, noticing just how weird the events leading up to now have been. 

 

Suddenly, the boy cries out again, and Pidge watches on in horror as his body hardens and begins to crack. Large fissures tear up his spine and splinter through his neck, his face, his hair.. Until finally, he just.. dissolves.. Scattering amidst the wind like sand. The boy that stood in front of her seconds ago was now merely dust, his essence mixing with the grains beneath her feet, making the earth churn. Something trembles deep beneath her, and the sky starts to burn. Pidge screams as a million voices chorus against the heat.

 

**"Help us, paladin. Teranos will destroy us all. Please, free Akino."**

 

Pidge screams and thrashes against the sand, trying to wake, to feel her pillow, to open her eyes.. but a gentle hand stops her, forcing her to listen to the voices in the sand.

 

**"None of us are safe from The Final Death. You must find me sister. Find me and free me from my prison. My name is the password. You know what to do."**

 

Pidge can't move. Can't breathe. Can't speak. What's going on? What is she supposed to do? She wants to bark back at the voice in frustration, but she is suffocating on the sand.. The voice taunts her with the air it is using. Pidge seethes.

 

**"You have the power to save the universe, green paladin. Use it wisely."**

 

Pidge wants to ask him a million questions. What power? Who even are you? Why should I even care? But she can't. She's melting into the sand.. melting away with the dream.. She hisses and spits, trying to free herself, trying to claw her way back to the surface, but she can't do anything. She just watches, helplessly, as the dark figure above her lets her drown in the earth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I planned to make Lance and Pidge still mad at each other at the end originally but this idea popped into my head and I just couldn't say no to it. These two are the best team. 
> 
> Anddd, I gave up on re-formatting the space between paragraphs as you can tell.. It got to be way too much work. Hope it still reads well like this though.


	3. Polarize

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Childish paladins are childish, and things just keep getting weirder..  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52rX1GUS3Js

 

_Help me polarize, help me polarize,_

_Help me down,_

_Those stairs is where I'll be hiding all my problems,_

_Help me polarize, help me polarize,_

_Help me out,_

_My friends and I, we've got a lot of problems._

 

_You know where I'm coming,_

_From though I am running,_

_To you, all I feel is deny, deny, denial,_

_I wanted to be a better brother, better son,_

_Wanted to be a better adversary to the evil I have done,_

_I have none to show to the one I love,_

_But deny, deny, denial._

 

_Help me polarize, help me polarize,_

_Help me down,_

_Those stairs is where I'll be hiding all my problems,_

_Help me polarize, help me polarize,_

_Help me out,_

_My friends and I, we've got a lot of problems._

 

_Polarize is taking your disguises,_

_Separating them, splitting them up from wrong and right,_

_It's deciding where to die and deciding where to fight,_

_Deny, deny, denial._

 

_I wanted to be a better brother, better son,_

_Wanted to be a better adversary to the evil I have done,_

_I have none to show to the one I love,_

_But deny, deny, denial._

 

_Help me polarize, help me polarize,_

_Help me down,_

_Those stairs is where I'll be hiding all my problems,_

_Help me polarize, help me polarize,_

_Help me out,_

_My friends and I, we've got a lot of problems._

 

_We have problems_

_We have problems_

 

_Domingo en fuego, I think I lost my halo,_

_I don't know where you are,_

_You'll have to come and find me, find me._

 

_We have problems_

_We have problems_

 

_Help me polarize, help me polarize,_

_Help me out,_

_My friends and I have problems._

 

_Help me polarize, help me polarize,_

_Help me out,_

_My friends and I have problems._

 

_Help me polarize, help me polarize,_

_Help me out,_

_My friends and I have problems._

 

_Help me polarize, help me polarize,_

_Help me out,_

_My friends and I have problems._

 

_We have problems_

_We have problems_

 

_I wanted to be a better brother, better son_

_I wanted to be a better brother, better son_

_I wanted to be a better brother, better son_

  

 

\----

 

 

Within the compact darkness of a freezing cold chamber, a young boy opened his eyes for the first time in a very, very long time. He breathed in, slowly, then out, desperate to calm himself from the gnawing panic that was rising from within. Rousing from a cryosleep, especially one as long as what he'd been taking, could be quite stressful on the heart, and he didn't want to pass out again in the tank. There would be no one to help him in here if his heart failed.

 

The frigid air bit at his lungs as he woke, however, and the boy choked, coughing and wheezing madly against the harsh chill of the cell. He'd been stuck in this chamber for so long now... He couldn't even remember what it was like to taste warm air, or feel the refreshing breeze of wind on his face, as it caressed his fur.. Gods, how he missed his home.

 

 _I can't believe it's been nearly ten years.. but I'll be freed soon enough._ A faint smile spread through his lips.. _Our new sister will be here soon._

 

His eyes clouded over as soon as he thought that. His breathing shallowed and his vision tunneled, sending him back into the darkness. "I just wish you could meet her, Souma.."

 

\----

 

 

Pidge woke with a start, jolting upright. Her skin was slick with sweat and her heart was hammering wildly inside her chest. She looked around frantically, trying to make sense of where she was and how she got there, but it was dark and quiet. The only sound was Lance's distant snoring and the ticking of a clock. Pidge exhaled slowly, relieved.

  
She was in her room. It was only a dream. _She was in her room. It was only a dream.._

 

But it had been a really vivid, scary dream that she doubted she would be able to keep out of her mind for long. Looking at her clock, Pidge sighed, andsat up with a groan. It was 3:21 in the morning. She should go back to bed, but there was no way she was going to get any sleep after that nightmare.

 

Pidge snagged her slippers and her glasses and stumbled out of her room.

  
She trudged up to the lab wearily, pushing her glasses off her eyes to rub at the circles underneath them. She hadn't gotten much sleep at all the last few days, but she doubted she could rest again until she got this finished. Reluctantly, she pushed her way into the lab and flicked on the lights. The programs she had started running earlier had finished and their results were relayed on her screen, telling her… nothing. There wasn't really any new information she could use. Pidge bit her lip in frustration. Just what the heck was this thing, giving her so much trouble? Pidge kicked her desk numbly and sat down, typing away on her keyboard to clear her desktop.

 

 _Great.. Back to the drawing board.._ she thought.

 

Pidge pulled up some schematics and browsed through her options, gaze flitting to the strange device on the desk every now and then as she thought. Suddenly, a flashing light caught her attention, and Pidge screeched, thrusting herself forward on her roller-chair and shoving her face close to the device, speculating carefully. For whatever reason, there seemed to be a small green light flashing at the base of the pod now.

 

"Huh.." Pidge mumbled, "That's new.."

 

Pidge fiddled with the underside of the device for a bit, noting the design details and structure of the base, before coming to a conclusion. "This is a communication portal.." she realized, "If I can just tap into the frequency!"

  
Pidge all but flew back over to her laptop, fingers soaring across the keys once again. She pulled up several new windows and entered various coordinates into them, the numerous codes reflecting off her lenses at startling speeds.

 

"Alright.. 10 new trial programs running.. Hopefully one of these will be able to crack the code.." she muttered, leaning back into her chair and stretching, content with her work. She tapped back into her computer and moved her program windows aside, noticing the text document that was still sitting on her desktop.

 

"Oh.. I guess I should probably open you up, huh.."

 

Pidge double clicked on it and her eyes widened, before settling into a soft smile. "These guys.."

 

\----

 _  
_ _Hey Pidge! Shiro said we should all thank you for sharing your movies with us for movie night. And Hunk for prepping the food and Allura and Coran for letting us use the lounge! Thanks a bunch! And an especially big thanks to Keith for crying his eyes out, that was very entertaining man, thank you._

_-Lance_

 

_Don't let Keith read that Lance. And thanks Pidge! Do you have Ratatouille on here btw cause I would love to see that one next time!! Cheers,_

_-H_

 

_I simply loved your earth entertainment Pidge! The animation was so cute. I wish we had moving pictures like that on Altea. We had hologram plays, but they weren't quite the same. Some of them have excellent music compositions though and I'd love to share some of my favorites with you next time._

_-Princess Allura_

 

_Do all your Earth children's movies have such violent characters and sad scenes? I fear your youth must be much more troubled than ours! Please select something more uplifting for the next "movie night" please! I don't think I can stand another "iconic death scene", as you earthlings call it._

_-The Coranic_

 

_I DID NOT CRY, LANCE. I JUST HAD POPCORN DUST IN MY EYES._

_And yeah thanks for setting up guys._

_-Keith_

 

_I'll be in charge of the pillows next time._

_-S_

 

\----

 

Pidge shut her laptop and left the lab with a bright smile, invigorated by the thoughtful messages as she went off to get lunch.

 

_My crewmates are the best._

 

\----

 

[ 10 Minutes Later, in the cafeteria.. ]

 

Pidge glowered down at Lance, utterly engraged.

 

 _I take it back_ , she thought, _Lance is the worst person alive._

 

A stray piece of salami that had found itself flung halfway across the kitchen and stuck in the back of Pidge's hair was now crumpled between her tiny fists, leaving grease on her hands.

"You lookin' for a fight, hotshot?" she asked him, scrutinizing the boy with all the precise rage of a predatory bird.

 

Lance gulped. His shit-eating grin wavered a bit, but he pulled through. "Are you gonna challenge the sniper to shoot out, short stuff?" he challenged her.

 

Pidge popped a vein.

 

"I am," she said, slapping down the plate she was holding. She picked up a mustard container as she glared at him, adding, "And I have pretty good aim too."

 

Before Lance had a chance to react, Pidge slammed her fist down on the top of the container and sprayed the boy in front of her with copious amounts of the substance, coating him in it. Lance looked extremely offended.

 

"What the heck?!" he barked out shrewdly, glowering at the girl in anger. An ugly glob of mustard dripping from his priorly-perfect hair down onto his flannel shirt.

 

Pidge shrugged away his glare, smirking, "Like I said, I have good aim, sharpshooter."

 

Lance gave her the stinkeye. "You're lucky I know how to get out food stains.." he muttered in defeat, righting himself against the table.

 

Pidge squeaked suddenly as Lance made a jolting leap for the food goo platter in front of him, slamming one fist down on the end of it. His action sent the contents of the plate flying high in the air, right in the direction of Pidge's face. The girl crumpled to the floor as the ooze splattered against her glasses, blinding her, and groaned pathetically.  
  
"Lance.." she protested weakly, "That was totally uncalled for."

  
Lance gave a noncommittal shrug. "You reap what you sew."  
  
Hunk looked distraught. "My food goo...." he sniffed sadly. He turned toward his best friend with tears in his eyes. "How could you?"

 

Lance felt his insides do somersaults. "Oh, uh, sorry Hunk.." he apologized meekly, rubbing the back of his hair and avoiding his gaze. "I wasn't thinking."

 

Hunk sighed. "Clearly.." he mumbled, before heading for the doorway, "You two should stop there by the way," he warned, "The next time Allura finds a part of a castle left a mess you two might not get off so lucky."

 

Pidge grimaced while Lance scoffed. "Allura isn't even here!" he told him "She went off to meet with that royal dude, remember? King what's-his-name."

 

"Karl." Pidge said.

  
"Yeah, Karl," Lance said. He scrunched up his face, and added in afterthought "Who names a prince _Karl_?"

 

Pidge rolled her eyes.

 

Hunked looked cross. "Shiro will let her know if he finds out," he reminded them, "They've got a tight correspondence going. Besides, you two always leave messes around the castle, and I really DON'T want to end up having to clean up after you two again."

 

Lance balked at him. "Pidge is always the one leaving messes, not me!" he retorted, and behind him Pidge stuck out her tongue.

 

"Well then help her clean up," Hunk said dismissively, waving his protests off with one hand, "Anyway I've gotta go help Coran fix the engines, so make sure to clean up this mess while I'm gone," he told them just as he was leaving the kitchen. He really didn't leave any room for Lance to respond.

 

Lance gave Pidge a sour expression. He really didn't like the fact that Hunk, his best friend and buddy for life, had been left in charge of the two of them while Allura was gone. It felt like they had a second Shiro on board all of a sudden.  "Are you gonna help me clean up?" he asked Pidge.

 

Pidge blanched. "Yeahhhhhhhh.." she sighed.

 

 

\----

 

 

By the time the two of them had cleaned up and gone their separate ways, Pidge's programs had finished running. She noticed this just as she re-entered the lab, seeing the blinking green light on her notification window. Her eyes lit up in response.

 

"Oh yeah, now we're in business!" she exclaimed, running over to her chair and clicking through her windows in a frenzy.

 

"Looks like I finally tapped into the right frequency.." she muttered, before realizing what this meant.

 

She pulled out the intercom microphone and plugged it in, remembering briefly how she'd used it to pull a prank on everyone just yesterday. Her and Lance had gotten in so much trouble for it, but man, had it been worth it.

 

Pidge firmly pressed her thumb to the button and began speaking into the microphone. "Hey guys, I've got something here." she said urgently, knowing that would get at least a few of them to come.

 

She resumed her work, typing in codes and trying to get a transmission across to the device, when a  particular query caught her eye. It was a coded message. In English. The pod was communicating with her in her native language.

 

 _Huh._ Pidge found that oddly convenient. Contrary to popular belief, aliens did not in fact, all speak the same language. Humans don't even speak the same language and they're from the same planet! The only reason her and her friends were able to communicate with other lifeforms was thanks to an incredibly complex and high-tech auto-translation device the Alteans had made. Apparently, they'd been translating what the Princess and Coran had been saying to them (and vice versa)  ever since day one! The whole time they'd been speaking Altean, and they didn't even know it!

 

That fact never ceased to amaze Pidge, and ever since she'd learned of it she's been going over the various alien language records the ship's computer has stored, and trying to memorize their names and what planets they were regionalized to. You never knew when that stuff might come and handy.

 

But she had never, ever, come across an alien that spoke English before.

 

Pidge began to get nervous. As she decrypted the file her gut began to churn, filling her abdomen up with dread. Something wasn't right here..

 

As soon as she opened the file, her gut feeling became about a thousand times worse. There was only a single English sentence on the screen in front of her, yet it resounded with a weight she couldn't possibly describe.

 

 **_"Pidge… sister… Please let me out. You know the code."_ **  
  
Her name, the words sister.. She stared at them, unable to fully comprehend what she was seeing. Was this.. a message from her brother? That might explain why it was encoded in English, but the kind of technology the device was using was way beyond anything Pidge had ever seen before.. She didn't think Matt would be able to use it so easily on his own, not when it took her so long just to figure out how to open up a frequency.. No. Matt wasn't the tech nerd, _she was_. If there was anyone behind this odd turn of events.. It would have to be..

 

 _"Pidge!"_ A voice called out suddenly, jerking her out of her thoughts. Without realizing what she was doing, Pidge snapped her laptop shut, realizing just how little she wanted anyone else to see that message. Somehow it just felt.. private.

 

Warily, Pidge looked up to find Shiro looked between her and the laptop. He looked curious at her reaction, but didn't seem eager to pry. Perhaps he thought he'd just scared her.

 

"Have you cracked the code yet?" he asked. Lance and Keith appeared by him suddenly, wearing the same question on their features.

 

Pidge shook her head, turning back to her computer, opting to ignore their level of ignorance on what she had been doing.  "I managed to open up communication frequency with the device, to see if I could feed codes through, but before I could it sent me an encrypted message." she said slowly, still sort of bewildered with what she'd just seen.

 

None of the three boys fully understood what she was saying but they opted for serious expressions at the tone of her voice. Pidge frowned. Clearly it wasn't getting through to them. "It was in English."

 

Keith raised a brow. "And?"  
  
Pidge facepalmed. "Alien encryptions are never in English! They're usually in some universal code, standard Galra Encryption, Morse, or their own languages if they're communicating with each other. This one, this was directed AT US. _At the paladins_." she said seriously, hoping her words would get through to them.

 

Lance's grin gleamed, reflecting the harsh white lights in the lab ceiling. "So? That just means we're finally getting famous! Who's the lucky lady in need?"

 

Everyone groaned.

 

Shiro gave Pidge a look. "What did it say?"  
  
Pidge froze.

 

She didn't mean to. It just happened. She hadn't thought about what she was going to say to them and now it was coming back to bite her in the butt. She couldn't just tell them that the encryption had addressed her directly, called her sister, and might be somehow connected to a crazy dream she had last night. Nope. No way. Her teammates already thought she had a few screws loose enough as it is, so she had to tell them something else.

 

Pidge avoided their gazes, opting to stare at the screen on her back-up laptop instead. "It gave me a code." she wracked her brain, trying to remember her dream from last night. "A..akino." her brow furrowed. She hoped that was right. A lot of the details from her dream were hazy now, and she had a pretty terrible memory to begin with, so for all she knew she could have just imagined that bit.

 

Shiro raised an eyebrow. "The thing just.. gave you the code to open it?"

 

Pidge bit her lip absently. "Yup.." she trailed off.

 

Shiro hummed.

 

"Well we can't just open it." Keith insisted, crossing his arms and with a grim look. "Who knows what that thing is for? What if it's another bomb?"

 

Lance shuddered. "Please don't be another bomb.." he muttered. Pidge winced.

 

"Well.. we can always put it in the blast-proof barrier.." she said, "Just to be safe! I highly doubt it's actually a bomb."

 

Shiro looked dubious. "We have a blast-proof barrier?" he asked.

 

Pidge grinned, and gestured to the large cylindrical clear case situated on the far wall. "Heck yeah we do." Her and Hunk had secretly been dying to try it ever since Coran showed them how it worked. Pidge honestly hoped she was going crazy, and the pod would just explode behind the glass.

 

Lance beamed. "So we get to watch it explode then?!" he piped up. His mood did a complete one-eighty once he realized he wasn't in danger of getting 3rd degree burns again.

 

Pidge smirked and Keith rolled his eyes. Shiro shrugged in defeat.. "Well, so long as it's safe.." he murmured.

 

Lance and Pidge both nearly exploded with excitement at the subdued go-ahead, and gave each other a quick team fist-bump before getting ready to move the device. Pidge hovered over it as the boys moved around her, glasses shining with reflected green light. "Time to open this thing up." she grinned.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh man it feels like forever since i've updated this, i'm sorry guys! i've been taking my sweet time writing the last few weeks cause of school and other projects i've been working on, but i promise to put more into this now that i have the time.
> 
> also lmao this is really short. i'll try and make the next chap longer to compensate :v


	4. Author Note

I'm really sorry I haven't updated this in a while guys... I've had little to no inspiration when it comes to writing and every time I try and sit down and finish the next chapter.. I just draw a blank. I'm thinking I may just scrap this story entirely, or give it to someone who has more inspiration to write :/ Because at this rate I'll never finish it... especially since I have so many other ideas I wanna write.


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